Of Mice and Men

Life with out friends or family is impossible to live through. Without a family to go to or a friend by your side, you become lonely and sometimes bitter. It becomes hard for you to live life because you have no one to go to, no one to talk to, or no one be around when you’re lonely. Steinbeck shows that through the lives and actions of the characters his novel “Of Mice and Men” that companionship is a big necessity for happiness. Without companionship, a person could never be happy; instead they would be lonely with no one to go to. Through the support of friends, trust, and unconditional love, He shows how companionship is a very important necessity to have in life and without it; it causes loneliness, hatred and depression.

In this novel, Steinbeck shows how George and Lennie are different from all the people on the ranch. George and Lennie have a strong bond between each other that is hard to break. Both show support for each other. George takes care of Lennie and makes sure he doesn’t do anything wrong. He is like a father or big brother figure towards Lennie and Lennie looks up to him and tries his best to please him and make him happy. Lennie on the other hand shows his support for George in a slightly different way. Whenever George gets frustrated, lonely, or down, Lennie is always there for George to keep him company and to cheer him up. As they spend their time going from ranch to ranch, they see men come and go, get their money for the month, waste it, and go work again. They see that the men on the ranch have no life because they have no one to go to, no one to be with, and no one that is by their side. If George and Lennie didn’t have each other, they would be living just like them, sad, lonely and depressed.

The Companionship between George and Lennie also shows us the trust they have for one another versus the other men on the ranch. A big example of a character in the novel with no trust for anybody is Crooks. Crooks is a black man on the ranch who has the job of a stable buck. However, he is treated more as a slave rather than an equal person. It’s hard for him to have trust towards anybody because he has no true friends on the ranch. Everyone always looks down on him, makes fun of him, and even sometimes beats him up. As you can see, Crooks has no one to go to, and no one to talk to which makes him a bitter and sad man. When Lennie asked to sit and talk with him, he was very mean to Lennie because it’s very hard for him to trust some one since he has no one unlike George and Lennie. Lennie trusts George with his life. If George tells Lennie to do something Lennie is quick to follow what George asks because he looks up to him